Rediscovering
by Lugian Before Swine
Summary: GenexFinny. First person Gene. Alternate continuity. Takes place the summer after the marble stairs incident, but Finny survives his surgery. Rating is likely to change with future chapters.
1. Awakened

**A/N: Welcome to Lugian's newest ASP fic. This one will have chapters! And a plot! And lots of FinnyxGene fluff! So, naturally, I'm excited.XD I tried my best to get Gene and Finny IC, but their personalities are a bit too deep for me to wrap my small brain around. So they ended up being a tad OOC, but not totally wacko, which is always a plus.**

**Disclaimer: I can only dream. And I do. xD**

**Rediscovering**

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I was sleeping. Sweet, warm sleep flowed like a gentle current over me. Comfortable and comforting.

Suddenly, I was startled from my state by a harsh flash. Bright yellow light stung the room for a couple seconds. I rubbed my eyes, but by then it was gone—Brinker had flipped the switch back off and was now sneaking out of the room, chuckling to himself. It was too late, though—I was up for good.

"Gene?" Finny's voice floated across the room. "Are you awake?" I didn't answer, though, because he already knew—he always knew. After a second, he continued talking, like I knew he would. "Did you see who did that?"

"Brinker," I muttered, rolling over and covering my head with my pillow.

"Remind me to kill him later," Finny said flatly, but I could tell by the undertone in his voice that he was smirking. I heard him move across the room.

"Right," I said, uncovering my head and sitting up. I could make out the shape of Finny standing over my desk, squinting at my open notebook.

"You didn't finish your math," he said finally.

"Yeah, I know," I sighed, standing up and stretching. "It's really not due until 10:10."

I saw Finny turning to look at me in the darkness. "Have I become a bad influence?" I walked to the door and flipped the light back on.

"Possibly," I said, smiling at him from my spot by the door. "But unlike you, I'm going to _finish_ it."

"Aww, what a wimp." He flashed me a brief smile, then walked past me towards the bathroom.

I walked to my desk and sat down in front of my homework. I really didn't want to do it, but thanks to Finny's distractions the past few weeks, I was on the verge of failing this class.

Just as I was about to start writing, though, the aforementioned Finny popped back into the room. "Would you like to know a highly interesting fact that will make you drop that pen and forget about your homework?"

I sighed at this new distraction, but turned towards him anyway and said, "Of course."

"Today," Finny announced proudly, "is Sunday." Then he turned back into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

"So it is," I muttered to myself. I had really forgotten. Just like Phineas had said, though, I put my pen down and stood up. We had woken up late despite being forced, and breakfast had started 10 minutes ago. Trusting Finny to get us out of trouble again, I changed at my dresser and then sat down on my cot. I _could_ still do my homework…there was no rule that said you couldn't do homework on Sunday. Decided, I turned to get back to my desk and suddenly found myself face to face with Finny. "Wha…?" I stammered. His face was so close to mine I could see his green eyes sparkling. He studied me for a couple seconds, then pulled away and said, "Just making sure you're not thinking about your homework." I gulped and shook my head. He nodded and added hastily, "Let's go outside, huh?"

"Sure," I managed to say. What had just happened? I had turned around and he was just _there_, so calm and casual, carefully studying my expression, which I'm sure was one of utter shock. I stood up and followed Finny out the door, thinking of this incident and what his motive in doing that had really been.

Everyone was still at breakfast when we got outside, so the grounds were almost completely deserted. We reached the bank of the Devon River and Finny sat down in the grass nearby. I sat next to him and slowly looked up into his eyes. They were trained on something across the river, but he seemed to be looking beyond it, contemplating deeper meanings.

With a slight twitch he snapped back to reality. "I'm failing four of my classes," he said.

"What?" I asked, surprised at the sudden voiced thought.

"Four of them. My mind's been on other things," he said simply.

"Do you need help?" I asked. If I could do something for him, I would.

"No, not really," he sighed. "Well, yeah, I guess I do, but _you_ don't need to help me. You've got your own studies to think about."

"Finny, if you need help, I'll do it," I said earnestly. "I don't want to sit around and watch my best friend fail his classes."

He smiled then, and I could tell the mood had lightened, the event in our room forgotten. "Are you sure? 'Cause you really don't have to…"

"Finny. I'll do it," I said, smiling back at him.

"Oh, all right. If you insist."

Happiness began bubbling up in my chest then. I was going to do something for _him_. The great Finny needed help, and I was going to be the one to help him.

"What're you so smiley about?" he asked good-naturedly.

"I'm just happy I can help."

"Yeah, much thanks. Don't know what I'd do without you," he said, smirking slightly.

I caught the hint at sarcasm and punched him on the shoulder. "Just be grateful that I offered."

"Oh, I am, I am. After all, what better tutor could I get? The boy-wonder Gene knows everything." The smirk was growing and something had to be done about it.

If there were ever any hard feelings between us, they all melted away when I pushed him into the river and jumped in after him, both of us laughing all the while.

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**Chapter 2 coming when I'm not paying attention in Japanese. Which is almost always, so it should be pretty quick.XD**

**Thanks for reading. Reviews are instant love.**

**Lu**


	2. An Attempt At Homework

**A/N: Chapter 2 already. I told you it would be quick. Japanese is mighty boring.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned ASP, you can bet that it would be called **_**A Separate Peace: Slashfest At Devon.**_** Hey, that sounds like a good crackfic title.XD**

**--**

Later that day, after lunch, Finny and I went back to our room. "Well, we might as well start with this," he said, pulling a notebook out from under his cot. He opened it up to a page near the front and pointed at the blank page. "My math should be here," he began, "but I didn't understand any of it." He sighed melodramatically.

"Well, there's your first problem," I said, laughing a little. "You don't even try to do your homework!"

"I just told you, I didn't understand it!" He seemed to be pouting, almost, and I laughed harder at his expression.

"What?!"

"We're never going to get anything done," I said.

"Well not when you're bursting out in mad laughing fits for no reason!" Despite his words, he was laughing, too. "There was something in that pasta, I swear to God. We're nuts. I've got to finish this." He pointed accusingly at his notebook.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," I said, walking to my desk and grabbing my own notebook. Realization dawned then. "I forgot—I didn't—"

"You didn't finish, either," said Finny, grinning almost crazily. "We're not going to do any of it! I'm not going to graduate! And it'll be all _your _fault!" His grin had turned evil.

"Finny, you're crazy—"

But he was on a roll. He stood up and began proclaiming in a loud voice, "I can see it now—'Young boy fails classes due to incompetent tutor. Devon's reputation is ruined!'" He was laughing hysterically now. "Why do I pay you?"

I was laughing now, too, and we completely forgot about our homework until Finny threw his notebook at me. "What was that for?" I asked, grabbing my own and preparing to return fire.

"My work ethic has made a dramatic turnaround. I actually want to finish this. You're the greatest." He grinned at me and my first instinct was to avert my eyes—I didn't deserve his gratitude—but eventually I returned his smile, though mine was a bit more sheepish.

"Seriously. Work." He got up, grabbed his notebook, and patted my head good-naturedly before returning to his seat at the table across from me. "Number one. 'The world is ending and cars are rushing to leave the city. Car 1 crashes into Car 2 at 85 miles per hour, causing 1200 dollars worth of damage. How fast was Car 2 traveling, and, more importantly, will they both make it off the planet in time?'" He snickered a bit at his own joke while I marveled at his ability to make up a complex story without actually trying.

"Well, it really depends on the circumstances," I said, playing along. "How is the world going to end?"

"Explosion."

"Are you sure it's not an implosion? That would make a difference."

He grinned again and hung his head in mock shame. "You got me. My science skills are woefully inferior to your own. Which," he began, suddenly pushing us back on track, "is why I need to do this!"

"You're the one who made the apocalypse question," I said.

"Flawless logic. Alas, it doesn't help me find the cosine of angle A."

"Tangent, you mean."

"No, cosine."

"What number are you on?"

"Number one! I haven't started yet!"

"That's number two!"

"Agh!" He threw his notebook on the table and slammed his head down. For a second, I thought he was crying, but when he lifted his head up off the table, I could see he was laughing. "You were right. We're never going to finish this. Go ahead and do yours; I'm just getting you off track."

"No, you're actually helping me…"

He cocked his head slightly to one side, interested in how he could possibly be helping _me_.

"…Remember why I hate math so much," I finished, laughing as I stood up, walked over to my cot, and plopped down on it. "I don't want to do this. I'm going to take a nap."

His face went from joyous to dumbstruck in record time. Finny, dumbstruck. Those two words didn't usually go together.

"Nap? When there's work to be done? Who are you and what have you done with Gene Forrester?"

I snickered. "I'm tired. Brinker woke us up, remember? Plus, you wouldn't stop talking in your sleep last night."

"Really?" He seemed interested now. "Well, what was I talking about?"

I had expected this question, but I wasn't prepared to give an answer. Somehow, telling him the words 'French maid,' 'snuggly,' and 'pretty please' had made it into his sleep-dialogue didn't seem like the best thing to do.

"Cats," I lied. "You wouldn't stop talking about cats."

"Hmm," he mused. "I can't imagine why that would be."

"Me either." I rolled over onto my side. Finny stood up, walked toward the door and opened it.

"Don't worry, I'll be back," he smirked, and then he left and shut the door behind him.


End file.
